Business As Usual in Egypt

Business As Usual in Egypt

by Stephen Lendman

Days of street protests created illusory change. Everything changed but stayed the same. The pattern's familiar. Ousting Morsi assures same old, same old.

Washington prioritizes Middle East control. It wants it unchallenged. It's the oil, stupid. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and other regional states have nearly two-thirds of proved world oil reserves. They have huge gas deposits.

What's known suggests it. Morsi was America's man in Cairo. Mass public outrage opposed him. Promises made were broken. People needs go unaddressed.

Western monied interests are served. Same old, same old persists. What Washington says goes. People have no say. Democracy's more illusion than reality. Hardline rule excludes it.

Morsi became damaged goods. He fell from grace. He's gone. Meaningful change won't follow. Ousting him wasn't "against US interests," said Chossudovsky. "(I)t was instigated to ensure 'continuity' on behalf of Washington."

Throughout the so-called Arab spring, Obama sought "to undermine secular governments in the Middle East and North Africa and install a model 'Islamic State,' which would serve US geopolitical and corporate interests."

"Continuity pertaining to neoliberal economic reform is central to US sponsored regime change."

Media reports are wrongheaded. Egypt's military maintains longstanding ties to the Pentagon. It's role "is not to protect a grassroots movement," said Chossudovsky.

It's to "manipulate the uprising and quell dissent on behalf of Washington." It's to insure regime change "does not result in a political transition which undermines US control over the Egyptian State and military."

US officials decide Egyptian policy. Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) commanders "take their orders from the Pentagon."

General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi heads SCAF. He's been top commander since August 2012. He's Defense and Military Production Minister. He's a 1977 Egyptian Military Academy graduate. He got US training. He's a US War College graduate.

He maintains close Pentagon ties. "It is highly unlikely that (he) would have acted without a 'green light' from the Pentagon," said Chossudovsky.

Morsi "was Egypt's first democratically elected leaderâ€¦.It would be tragic if Egyptians allowed the 2011 revolution (ousting) Mubarak to end with this rejection of democracy."

Fact check

Democracy in Egypt is verboten. It doesn't exist. It never did. It isn't planned. Hardline rule persists. In 2011, parliamentary elections were held. Ahead of the June 2012 presidential runoff, SCAF reacted.

A two-step process was used. Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) annulled results. It did so illegitimately.

SCAF dissolved parliament. It disbanded the constituent assembly. It was tasked with drafting a new constitution. At issue then and now is retaining junta power.

Egypt's anti-democratic tradition is longstanding. Elections are corrupted by fraud. Morsi was more anointed than elected. SCAF has final say.

It proposes and vetoes legislation. It convenes and adjourns parliament. It appoints and replaces the prime minister and cabinet members. It decides how Egypt's governed.

Elected officials serve military ones. Authoritarian rule remains firm. Elections provide a veneer of democracy. It exists in name only. The real thing's verboten.

SCAF maintains full political, economic and military control. It decides when or if to suspend constitutional rights, institute martial law, enforce censorship, curtail anti-regime protests, marginalize opposition, and restrict assemblies and free movement.

It controls arrests and indefinite detentions. They persist with or without charges. Military tribunals rule. Extrajudicial police state harshness persists. Brute force confronts regime opponents. Rogue states operate this way.

Times editors claimed Washington has "little leverage over either Mr. Morsi or the opposition, which more often than not held Washington at arm's length."

Obama "reacted with appropriate caution to Mr. Morsi's ouster. (He) expressed deep concern over the military's action, urged all sides to exercise restraint and reiterated that the United States takes no side except to support democracy and the rule of law."

Fact check

Washington approved Morsi's candidacy and "election." It maintains virtual total leverage over Egyptian policy. It prioritizes unchallenged control. It mandates authoritarian rule. It deplores democracy. It spurns it at home and abroad.

Washington Post editors were no better. "US must suspend aid after Egypt's coup," they headlined.

"The armed forces forcibly removed and arrested President Mohamed Morsi, who won 51 percent of the vote in a free and fair election little more than a year ago."

Obama must "us(e) the leverage of aid to insist on a democratic transition."

WaPo and other scoundrel media editors exclude what readers most need to know. Misinformation substitutes for truth.

General al-Sisi "promis(ed) new elections, albeit with a timetable." With "prominent opposition" leaders, he "announce(d) a new 'roadmap' for Egypt's future. (He) proposes a broadly representative committee to rewrite the constitution and to form a technocratic government."

SCAF doesn't "seem eager to govern directly. Egyptians would be lucky if their new ruling generals turn out to be in the mold of Chile's Augusto Pinochet. (He) took power amid chaos but hired free-market reformers and midwifed a transition to democracy."

It's hard imagining more convoluted rubbish. An earlier 9/11 ousted Salvador Allende. Piranhas replaced him. Chile became an unfettered capitalist laboratory. It became the first Chicago School state.